Not WAC-related but...

Flash!!!! The Big East Conference will hereby now be known as The Smaller East Conference.

Remember when the Big East was top dog and ESPN's soul mate?

Sunday's heavenly WAC hoops chronicle

Gary Wilkinson is back on the court in New Zealand and picking up where he left off.

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Texas prep frontcourter Holt Harmon has given a verbal to Cornell and cancelled his other trips, one of which was to be Logan.

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Dayton Morinaga again goes multi media on open gym Rainbow Warriors style

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Matt Christensen at the Aggie Fanatics site looks at the USU starting five in 2015.

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Ryan Gorcey reports (a Rivals sub is required) that CA high schooler Arik Armstead is still mentioning Nevada among his top suitors. PTW finds it difficult to believe that some of those major football powers in Armstead's list are ultimately going to buy in to him playing both sports in college. Plus, he's surprisingly still listing Miami which may not even have a gridiron program a couple of years hence.

A Dashawn Gomez - Utah State connection

Jon Rothstein recently tweeted this:

"Iona gets massive commitment in Dashawn Gomez from - Top juco point guard in California...picked Gaels over Utah St and San Diego St...."

Hadn't heard Gomez was in the mix of JC points USU has been pursuing.

Saturday's WAC basketball roundup

Jason Groves completes his look at the 2011-12 Aggies with a blog entry on the non-starting five guys. He also offers an intriguing note on the whereabouts of Coach Marvin Menzies.

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Former New Mexico State point DaShawn Gomez, now at Antelope Valley College in southern CA, has given a verbal to Iona. Both Mel Grussing and Adam Zagoria check in with reports.

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6-foot-8 Canadian freshman forward Braeden Anderson has been ruled a partial qualifier at Kansas and the end result is he will be departing from Lawrence. PTW doesn't know if New Mexico State has any schollies available but can Marvin Menzies work something with the tuition costs (which Anderson couldn't afford -- $28,000 -- at Kansas)? Anderson originally committed to DePaul but asked for and received his release. Hawaii showed interest earlier.

Idaho has a point for next season

Brad Winton/Juco Recruiting is reporting:

"Tim Johnson, a 2012 PG out of LA Trade Tech, has given Idaho a verbal commitment"

Do bookmark Brad's site in addition to his Twitter account.

The 6-foot-0 Johnson is described by DR (a SoCal Juco hoops expert) in this 2010 team preview:

"Super-scorer put on a show for Santa Ana CC at the Hoop Review Shootout in July before moving to LATT. Quick and agile, able to get his own show and is exceptional mid-range shooter. A qualifier who had interest from Oregon last year and is clearly a D-1 guy"

He averaged 8.4 points, three rebounds and 2.7 assists last season at TT.

LT has a visitor

Louisiana Tech has 2012 high schooler Michael Qualls in on a campus visit this weekend. he's a 6-foot-4 wing who played for the Louisiana Select basketball club.

From a Jerry Meyer 2009 article:

Michael Qualls (2012)- At 6-foot-4 and as about as long as a prospect can get at that size, Qualls was the top athlete at the event. A promising transition and baseline dunker, Qualls played with an impressive intensity. He's a dangerous rebounder and defender and also displayed flashes of a developing skill game. It is tough to say what level Qualls will end up at as a prospect, but his upside makes him a prospect that high majors need to be tracking.

A heading into the weekend look at WAC hoops

Chris Murray reports that a pair of high schoolers will be in Reno this weekend for officials. Don't visits generally take place during a football home game (Nevada is at San Jose State University on the gridiron)?

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Richard Obert/ArizonaCentral has a blog entry on 6-foot-5 2013 prepster Paul Watson who possesses an offer from Fresno State (as well as many others).

Here's a undated writeup on Watson.

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Jason Groves offers an in-depth look at his projected New Mexico State starting five.

Bill Walton on Twitter -- a must follow

Bill Walton is quite the wit with these zingers. Warning to those easily insulted as some political jokes follow:

"Twitter is now available in five new languages. Unfortunately for Rick Perry & Michele Bachmann, "Insane Rambling" is not one of them"

and

'When asked about his steamy 1987 rendezvous with potential Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Glen Rice simply replied "Drill Baby, Drill"!"

and

"Sarah Palin had an intimate relationship with Glen Rice in the 80s. Rice tried to resist but he was never one to stop anyone from scoring"

and

"Ron Paul is harnessing the soul of Leonidas the Spartan King! Meanwhile Newt Gingrich evidently harnesses the calories of the Burger King"

and

"Today is 9,10,11! Or in LeBron's case, how many rings the Heat will never win"

and

"Roger Goodell will fine any player wearing unauthorized 9-11 tribute gear on Sunday. Hopefully Goodell uses the money to buy himself a soul"

Thursday's WAC basketball report

Per Tony Jones, Utah State has landed a junior college verbal: 6-foot-8 Sean Harris out of Coach Doug Cornelius' ultra-successful Yuba College program based in northern California.

By the way, Yuba had five all-conference players last season including one that moved on to Minnesota and another who landed at Idaho.

Here's a note from when Harris signed a letter-of-intent with Coach Les and Bradley in 2010.

Here's a July 2011 post all about Harris returning to the court from his LDS mission.

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Bob (Mslacat) Robinson plus this link too sent along information about Trey Dickinson.

Dickinson is a 6-foot-1 guard at Price High in Los Angeles but originally from NY. Montana State has offered (he'll visit October 1) plus he will be scheduling a sojourn to San Diego State. Fresno State fans will be interested in these items:

"2012 point guard Trey Dickerson of Price High School (Cal.) spoke with Fresno State tonight"

and

"Fresno State coming to see me monday"

Dickerson totaled 18 points and 6 assists a game last year when he was at Montclair High (the school subsequently dropped athletics).

Here's Dickinson's Twitter account.

Here's a feature on him from August 26.

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Hawaii's basketball scheduled has been freed -- Dayton Morinaga offers the details.

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Was this said tongue-in-cheek or in front of a mirror? In the August 1 issue of Sports Illustrated, Tennessee Coach Derek Dooley, who worked as both football coach and athletic director at Louisiana Tech from 2007-2009, was quoted saying: "The best athletic director I ever worked for was at Louisiana Tech." 

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Just throwing this in for fun: Anthony Ray (a Rivals sub is required) has posted a feature on two big in the Arizona community college ranks. One is Matt Korcheck/Cochise College who had USU interest some time back and the other, is Arizona Western's Renan Lenz, a native of Brazil. Might Hawaii be checking out the latter? Ray says both are now high major prospects.

An Olu Ashaolu update

Former LA TECH frontcourter Olu Ashaolu was on Oregon's recent trip to Italy and this ratio jumped out at us: five assists versus 16 turnovers. At his height, he must create with the ball in order to land in The League but that won't matter across the pond (which is where he is headed).

Two WAC teams have offered Jonathan Milligan

Jonathan Milligan, a 2012 high schooler out of Arizona, is listed on his club team's site as possessing offers from Fresno St. and Idaho (as well as others). He's a 6-foot-2 point.

From a September 1, 2011 article by Abe Schwadron in SLAM:

Jonathan Milligan, Casa Grande, AZ, 6-2, 160 pounds
Unknown in his home state of Arizona before the Breakout Challenge, Milligan impressed Wall enough to earn a spot at the Summit. His long arms, great vision, sneaky athleticism and top-flight handle make him an ideal pure point guard, despite his skinny frame. He disappeared at times during full-court runs against the NBAers, but in fairness, Milligan’s game is built for running an organized team, not the chaos of a pick-up game. Something about Milligan—maybe it’s his big-time smile or lanky build at the lead guard spot—brings to mind the image of Hoop Dreams’ Arthur Agee.

Here's an August 31, 2011 video of Milligan being interviewed.

Fresno State bringing in an Arizona prepster

Jon at his Big Sky Basketball site notes that there is a Stacy Davis - Fresno State connection. Do bookmark him.

Here's a January 7, 2011 feature on Davis.

On Davis' club team site, Utah State is listed as offering but that may or may not still be on the table (USU angle) - still being considered (Davis' angle)

Wednesday's world of WAC roundball

Dayton Morinaga goes multimedia about a new (to PTW) name in Hawaii's backcourt collection.

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George Hostetter interviews Fresno State Coach Rodney Terry and PTW thanks both for the information provided. Two key lines: 

"...We're going to be about playing hard-nosed defense...

and

...There can't ever be any slippage in your life, on or off the court...

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Blake Snow/Deseret News serves up a homecourt advantage feature.

A Robert Upshaw update

Alex Kline/The Recruit Scoop offers the latest on Robert Upshaw:

"Kansas State has an in-home visit with Robert Upshaw, a 2012 center out of San Joaquin (CA), today. He has one with Oklahoma St next"

Upshaw isn't a make-or-break recruit for Fresno State but would certainly burnish the Bulldog recruiting credentials of Coach Rodney Terry and be the kind of 'get' that would cause other FSU targets to look longer.

But the competition is immense.

It's similar to the chicken and the egg conundrum. Does Terry need Upshaw in order to land other recruits sporting similar potential? Or can he land some forwards and guards from a higher rating stratosphere than usual, thus causing Upshaw to look longer?

The New Mexico State hydra of bigs

While most WAC teams struggle to land an at least adequate center, New Mexico State's roster is overflowing with talls.

Try:

* 6-foot-11 senior Hamidu Rahman -- out of American Christian School in New Jersey

* 6-foot-10 sophomore Tshilidzi Nephawe -- out of South Africa, he finished up with two seasons at Stoneridge Prep in southern California

* 7-foot-5 freshman Sim Bhullar -- out of Toronto, Canada, he finished up with a year at Huntington Prep in West Virginia

Plus there is this pair, although each is officially listed as a forward:

*  6-foot-11 junior B.J. West -- out of Louisiana who finished up at God's Academy in Dallas

* 6-foot-10 sophomore Renaldo Dixon -- out of Toronto, Canada who finished up at Christian Faith Academy in North Carolina

So how did this big and tall collection come to be?

PTW isn't sure who on the Aggie staff was responsible for securing Rahman.

Nephawe may have been seen by Coach Marvin Menzies during a trip to Africa but the young man also wasn't hard to find by being in southern California.

Bhullar is out of Canada as is Renaldo Dixon so it seems major credit should go to now Associate Head Coach Paul Weir, himself a Canadian native.

With West, who knows who got first sight of him.

We believe Nephawe will be the starter for the Aggies, with he and Rahman seeing the most time in the middle. Bhullar is simply an unknown at this point. His stated goal is to get to the pros in two seasons but that period of time is uber-optimistic if the intended target is the NBA or a top flight overseas squad. West was the stronger rebounder and shotblocker while Dixon displayed a longer shooting range as both averaged around 10 minutes a game during the 2010-11 season.

Is there some sort of commonality among the quintet (besides height)?

Prep school enrollment, whether it be of the secondary or post secondary version, appears to be a connection as each player last attended a prep school of sorts.

Some schools won't bother going after kids from certain prep schools or talent who made up for earlier academic deficiencies in a relative short period of time, sensing that their particular college academic requirements will prevent an enrollment from taking place. PTW has no idea what situation each of this quintet faced coming out of high school but it's readily apparent Menzies and his staff have done the job in getting them these talents on the floor and producing.

Hey, Louisiana Tech and Fresno State could really use an in-the-middle loaner for this season. Say West or Dixon for a favor to be repaid later?

* By the way, 6-foot-11 Antwond Roshell is no longer on the roster in Ruston and PTW believes he had a senior season of eligibility remaining. It looks like he is on the roster at D-2 Southern Indiana.